1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to a replacement surface for bathtub and shower floors.
2. Background Art
A number of different approaches have been taken to alter the aesthetic appearance or to repair defects in the floor of a bathtub or shower. The common theme found in the existing art is a large capital investment in equipment or time to accomplish a successful renovation. Most of the existing technology involves completely covering all of the existing bathtub or shower surfaces. This is accomplished in numerous manners, including molding, vacuum molding, and hand lay-up.
Molding and vacuum molding can involve large outlays in equipment to perform the processes involved in creating a new bathtub surface. Also, the hand lay-up of numerous plies of material and resin involve a tremendous amount of labor and skill. Besides involving a large capital outlay, the present methods also provide a finished surface that is smooth, which becomes slippery when wet and soapy. Further, these methods generally provide thin, structurally weak coverage of the existing bathtub or shower floor. Also, the material used in these applications are susceptible to mold, mildew and fungus.
Other present technology that does not seek to cover the entire bathtub or shower surface also has many of the same characteristics. By covering only a fraction of the bathtub floor, these methods lack aesthetic appeal. For this same reason, there can be only minor improvements in structural stability. These methods produce a multi-level tub bottom, thus raising safety concerns. Finally, these methods use epoxies in the bonding process which are very brittle and tend to crack.
The present invention seeks to solve the deficiencies of the present technologies by providing an inexpensive, quick to install, permanent, structurally enhanced yet resilient, aesthetically-pleasing and biomedically sound replacement surface for a bathtub or shower floor.